The ‘Queen Bey’ way

BEYONCÉ

“Queen Bey” Beyoncé Knowles celebrated her 35th birthday last week, making music and show biz fans marvel at how somebody so relatively young could have become the whole global entertainment hive’s reigning female monarch. How young was she when she started performing, 6 months?

In a recording career spanning just 20 years, she’s sold more than 100 million discs as a solo artist. She’s won 20 Grammy awards, has topped “decade-spanning” polls for radio and live performance, is cited as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and has been hailed as “the most powerful woman in entertainment” by Forbes magazine.

And she’s only 35? That’s the sort of “accomplishment report” that most other stars submit when they retire. How did Beyoncé manage to squeeze so much “living and achieving” in only 35 years?

She herself offers insights into what drives her, not just to succeed, but to exceed (most other similarly-driven show biz luminaries).

Updating fans on her latest career moves, which should add even more digits to her already staggering $250-M “net worth,” Queen Bey affirms that her production company, Parkwood Entertainment, has a new music label that is training young singing stars to make it in the biz—under her personal supervision.

In addition, she has a new creative collaboration with the Top Shop for fashion designed to inspire women “to work with, not against, their bodies.”

She admits to being singularly self-driven. As she reveals in the lyrics of “Formation”: “Sometimes I go off, sometimes I go hard/ Get what’s mine, I’m a star/ ’Cause I slay.”

She’s also learned a lesson that all artists should imbibe and live by: Stop talking about what you’re doing—let your work speak for itself!

Too many stars keep yakking about what makes their performance significant and great—and, when it (most often) turns out less than that, it’s like adding insult to injury—or, even more aptly, pedantry to perjury!

That helps explain why Beyoncé at only 35 had already attained the uncommon stature of being very popular and visible, while still retaining the air of mystery that sustained stardom requires.

Far too many stars have said and shown most everything they’ve got going for them, thus ultimately boring their fans.

Instead of the usual in-your-face promotional tactics, Beyoncé and her handlers have mastered the new art of using social media to get viewers to patronize her latest output.

Who needs “publicity” when she can generate seven million YouTube views of her latest song or music video in only 24 hours? That’s like living a year in a day—the “Queen Bey” way!